1. Consumer-funded tech startup Fifth Season will build a commercial-scale indoor vertical farm in Braddock, the company announced today. The company, originally founded as RoBotany, was incubated at Carnegie Mellon University’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. It raised $35 million to fund the 60,000-square-foot vertical farm. “Traditional vertical farms struggle to make economics work and it's a big reason why vertical farming, which has the ability to solve problems, hasn’t expanded. We see robotics as the answer to the lack of a fully integrated solution. We are staying in Pittsburgh because of the wonderful tech talent hub,” co-founder and CEO Austin Webb said. The company currently has two, smaller vertical farms on the South Side. Greens grown in those farms are sold at grocery stores such as Whole Foods and used in restaurants like Superior Motors (in Braddock). In its first year, the vertical farm in Braddock is expected to produce 500,000 pounds of produce such as lettuce, spinach and kale. – AgFunderNews

Inside Pittsburgh

News, people, culture, events and the trends shaping the Pittsburgh area